How Big is Creighton’s Athletic Budget?

The Creighton University Athletics Program is small relative to the programs in the BCS conferences. During the 2007-2008 season, Creighton spent $12.9 million on its athletic programs. That’s only 10% of the $120.2 million revenue earned by the University of Texas during the same time frame.

Let’s see if we can figure out what Creighton spends its athletic budget on.

As we would expect, the men’s basketball program is the largest revenue generating sport at Creighton, covering 33.5% of total revenue or expediture.

For the most part I am using revenue and expenditure interchangeably in this article. “Gameday” revenues account for only $7.7 million (59.7%) of Creighton’s $12.9 million in athletic expenditures for the 2007-08 school year. The remainder must be covered by donations and the school’s general fund.

Creighton Athletic Scholarships

$3 million is spent on athletic scholarships. This is equivalent of approximately 81 full ride scholarships per year.

NCAA Maximum Scholarships per Sport

Sport

Men’s

Women’s

Basketball

13

15

Soccer

9.9

12

Baseball/Softball

12

12

Volleyball

12

Tennis

4.5

8

Golf

4.5

6

Rowing

20

I am reasonably certain that Creighton fully funds thirteen for men’s basketball and 9.9 for men’s soccer. If the school also fully funds 12 for baseball, there would be 48 scholarship equivalents available for all other sports.